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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27550558">blame it on the rat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmandroid/pseuds/Emmandroid'>Emmandroid</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>my roommate is an internet food sensation [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band), SuperM (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Roommates, Tension, but of course they don't know that, like the littlest angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:07:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,050</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27550558</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmandroid/pseuds/Emmandroid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yukhei makes food videos. He also makes Mark a blushing mess.</p>
<p>Also, damn the ratatouille.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mark Lee/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>my roommate is an internet food sensation [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2013838</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>124</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>blame it on the rat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Until next time, peace!” Mark hears his roommate say just as he shoulders his way through the door of their dorm, grocery bags precariously contained within the crook of an arm. As the door swings open, he sees Yukhei fiddling with his phone on the tripod, probably checking if he’d actually pressed record. The converse has happened too many times, and has resulted in twice as many dirty dishes (nay) and twice as much food for Mark (yay), that he’s had to remind Yukhei to always double check that his phone is actually recording.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He greets his roommate with a casual “yo” as he settles the grocery bags on their kitchen counter and starts to unpack them. Yukhei, after uploading his video to cloud storage, stands up and turns to Mark with the widest smile on his face (just regular Xuxi) and returns the greeting with a boisterous “yo, Mark!” Mark indulges him with a shy smile before taking out the jar of peanut butter from one of the paper bags and settling it in the cupboard next to their other spreads and Yukhei’s bottles of various condiments that he uses in making his food videos. Mark hears his roommate rummaging through the paper bags, then Yukhei is sliding behind Mark and, with the cupboard still open, nonchalantly places two boxes of cereal on the top shelf. Mark doesn’t look up but he knows with absolute conviction that Yukhei is smirking down at him right now. Mark lightly elbows him in the ribs and mutters, “show off” before pushing past him and continuing to unpack the remainder of the groceries.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I made cookies, Markie. I was ripping off that bougie bakery in NYC with the big-ass chocolate chip cookies.” As if to demonstrate, Yukhei then picks up a cookie from the cooling tray and raises it beside Mark’s head. “Look, it’s almost as big as your face!” Mark gives him his cursory eye roll though both of them know he isn’t truly exasperated; in fact he’s amused (read: whipped) by his roommate’s excitement at creating a behemoth of a baked good. “The recipe said to shape the dough to the size of a palm...in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have taken the instructions too literally. Maybe I should have shaped it to the size of your baby hands.” And of course Yukhei has to slide their palms together as he’s saying this. Of course Mark doesn’t startle and get a flaming blush on his cheeks. Pfft.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>In an attempt at diversion, because Yukhei is smiling so fondly down at him, Mark hastily grabs at the cookie that’s still in Yukhei’s other hand and aggressively nibbles at it like a frantic chipmunk. “This is really good, bro.” “Right?! The recipe said to bake them at 410 for ten minutes but when I took them out, it was still raw cookie dough to me. These ones are 350 for 15 minutes. Aren’t they great?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And Mark loves this the most: when Yukhei beams with pride after successfully completing a recipe, still just like the first time he tried cooking for kicks and serendipitously found he was actually pretty good at it. “It tastes great, Hei.” He then looks past Yukhei to where the rest of the cookies are still rested on the cooling tray and the mixing bowl still has a sizable amount of dough. He quirks an eyebrow at his roommate. “So are you giving some of these away or will we binge on all of it tonight and risk our skin breaking out for a week?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>That night they go through the whole batch of cookies and half a gallon of milk while rewatching Totoro on Mark’s laptop. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>True to Mark’s prediction, their skin breaks out for an entire week.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They’ll probably do it all again.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He flops down in bed. It’s 2 pm on a Friday and Mark has just finished the last of his final exams. He’s sure his brain sustained irreversible damage from the three-exam marathon he only barely survived, plus the two consecutive nights of cramming (sponsored by Red Bull) that he’d had to endure to be at least reasonably prepared for today. He knows that at this very moment, Yukhei is still sitting through the last of his exams, so he sends a little prayer to the deities of higher education on behalf of his best homie. And then he falls asleep.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>His curtains are drawn so the room is bathed in darkness when Mark groggily blinks awake. He thinks he hears his roommate talking from the living room, and he thinks he hears something frying? He lifts his head off of the mattress and scrunches his nose to sniff the air. Yeap, something is definitely frying. And whatever it is smells good. How Yukhei is making one of his food videos after a whole day of exams is beyond him, but Mark is already salivating at the prospect of dinner with and prepared by his roommate. He tiptoes to their bedroom door and gently pushes the door out a little ways, then he peeks through to the now familiar setup: their one table in the dorm pushed to the center of the living room, Yukhei on one side, his phone on a tripod on the opposite side, and a whole bunch of ingredients, bowls, and cooking equipment in between.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>From this distance, Mark spots a ziploc bag filled with some artificially red powder. A quick glance to their kitchen counter reveals a near empty bag of flamin’ hot Cheetos puffs. His still sleep addled mind puts two and two together and realizes that the ziploc bag is crushed hot Cheetos. And ok Yukhei is taking a batter-coated chicken wing and rolling it in crushed hot Cheetos. That looks...interesting.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He just stands there like a curious little kid, head only slightly peeking through the bedroom door. Yukhei looks like the excitable giant puppy that he usually is when he’s making his food videos; and Mark realizes that, of course, the reason Yukhei is cooking after a full day of exams is because this is his joy and reprieve...and Mark Lee knows that no matter how odd a dish seems to him personally, he’ll always be the first person to try whatever his roommate makes and the first person to hype him when he finally posts the video on Twitter.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It’s because Yukhei is his best friend, he reasons. He tries not to look into it any further than that.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After five minutes of unobtrusively and still inconspicuously standing to the side, Mark sees Yukhei is finally wrapping up. The chicken wings, which he’s sure are golden brown underneath all that chemical red, are sitting on a rectangular plate, celery sticks and a ramekin of dipping sauce to the side. Yukhei is waving at the camera and delivering his signature ending, then he’s reaching for his phone and checking the raw video. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Mark straddles through the room then and throws his arm around Yukhei’s shoulders to announce his presence. Yukhei had been engrossed in watching his recording, but the instant he feels Mark’s arm around him, he snaps out of focus, turns to face his roommate, and lights up. “Hey, Markie! Had a good nap?” Mark nods in affirmation, sure that his hair is an unruly mess on his head. There are probably still imprints on his face too. But that’s precisely why he waited till the camera stopped rolling to approach his roommate, who has understandably seen him in much more unattractive states before and won’t bat an eye. “I made hot Cheetos wings! I saw a recipe online and I thought it’d be interesting to try after finals. There’s also root beer and actual beer already chilling in the fridge. Wanna talk about our week while halfheartedly watching a Lifetime drama?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You know it. I’ll wash the dishes and then you can set up and choose the movie.” As always happens when Mark volunteers to do Yukhei’s post-video dirty dishes, his roommate opens his mouth to protest. As always happens, he’ll end up closing said mouth and acceding, when he remembers that Mark really doesn’t mind and that he thinks it’s only fair since Yukhei did the cooking.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After he washes the dishes, Mark settles down in his usual spot beside Yukhei on the floor with their backs to the couch. Yes, they have a couch, and choose not to sit in it. Yukhei presses play on the movie that Mark doesn’t even bother to ask the title of, then cracks open a beer and hands it to him. Mark mouths a silent thanks and then clinks their cans together in a toast, before reaching for a chicken wing from the plate. “Here goes,” he says before biting into it, Yukhei’s eyes expectant and trained on his face the whole time.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I was afraid it’d be too spicy but it surprisingly isn’t, at all really.” “Right?! It’s like the heat cancelled out all of the flavor or something.” Yukhei visibly deflates after Mark had confirmed his own disappointment with the recipe. He was probably really excited at the idea of chicken wings that tasted like hot Cheetos, and rightfully disappointed that they ain’t so hot after all. Mark hates that. “But they’re still really good, man! The texture is bomb, and I’m sure it’ll taste even better when dipped in sauce,” which is exactly what he does, before he goes right back down on the chicken wing. “See! Just like I expected, it tastes dope with the sauce. This is still a success, Yuk.” He rests a hand on Yukhei’s thigh as he says this, so that it’ll really drive the point. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>But whereas he expects his roommate to be touched by his display of sincerity, Yukhei is actually chuckling. Mark is confused and quite a little bit offended. “Why are you laughing?” Yukhei just looks at him in amusement for a second before he actually replies. “It’s just...you have,” but instead of finishing his sentence, Yukhei leans over and brushes his thumb across the side of Mark’s lip. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh</span>
  </em>
  <span>. “There, all better...But I do appreciate it, Mark. You always know what to say to cheer me up.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>There’s that look of fondness that Mark had expected, only he isn’t prepared for how intensely it blows him over. He’s still reeling from Yukhei wiping sauce off of his face, and knowing himself he’s probably flushed like a cherry tomato to boot. He faces forward, eyes on the screen but attention admittedly elsewhere, and attempts to divert the topic. “So, how were your exams?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Yukhei takes a beat before answering. Mark still refuses to look at him. “They were alright. I think I passed all of them, so that’s great. It’s so annoying actually because I’ll be sitting in the room going through the questionnaire, and then all of a sudden my mind will remember the answer to a question in my previous exam. And internally I’m just like, ‘gaaaaaah, couldn’t you have done that earlier?’” Mark can’t resist, he looks at his roommate then, because the excited tone of Yukhei’s voice tells him that he’s using gestures to accentuate his words and telling the story with his whole body. Mark has always found that endearing, and this moment right here is no different. “I feel you, man. Happens to me too. I think the lag is only to be expected when we’re forcing our brain to take one exam after another. All the material just blends into the next and everything is a blur when it’s finished. Like I can’t say for certain that I didn’t thoughtlessly write down a chemical equation for my psychology essay.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>That coaxes a laugh out of both of them, and soon the previous bout of momentary awkwardness is lost in their animated conversations over Yukhei’s Cheetos wings, a six-pack of beer, and the indecipherable dialogue on the screen.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They’ll revisit it some other day.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Despite them being roommates, Mark isn’t always there when Yukhei makes his videos, though Yukhei does always save him food. One evening last week, Mark had come home to a skillet of ratatouille and had honestly been floored. Yukhei’s culinary niche is comfort food for college students, reasonably easy recipes that won’t intimidate his 20-something target audience; so for him to have made a sophisticated French dish, with precisely sliced vegetables and elegantly plated, was pretty remarkable to Mark. Never mind that they ate it for dinner while drinking boxed wine and rewatching the Disney movie that inspired Yukhei to make the dish in the first place. </span>
  <span>Mark had thought himself falling in love just that little bit more</span>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Fast forward to the present, Mark is lounging on the couch and whiling away the time until his next class in half an hour. He’s on his phone scrolling through Twitter when he sees that Yukhei’s just uploaded the making-of video of last week’s ratatouille. Like any respectable bro, he turns up the volume on his phone and presses play right away. Yukhei is a great cook but what really makes his videos special are his side comments and editing. His roommate is, truly, a giant Gen Z goofball and it shows in his videos.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It starts off with a shot of the whole plated dish and Mark finds himself in awe like he was the first time. Yukhei had already cut out and tried a slice when Mark came home last week, so seeing the dish in its majestic entirety feels like a different, elevated experience altogether. He reminds himself to compliment Yukhei again when he comes home later tonight. Especially when he highlights that the ratatouille was an “attempt,” as if it were a failed effort. It wasn’t to Mark, even with his limited knowledge of rustic French cuisine. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Unless you’re an octopus with eight hands, it’s going to take you one hour to prep everything.” Dang, thinks Mark, his roommate was really determined to make this. Also, he didn’t know they had a knife that sharp in their kitchen. He’ll make sure to keep away from that particular knife when needing something to hack through a package that’s wrapped in excessive layers of bubble wrap.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Of course Xuxi would joke about the eggplant being Barney’s schlong. And pretend it were a baseball bat before cutting it up. Briefly, he imagines his grandma sternly commanding his six-year-old self not to play with his food. But Yukhei is really a five-year-old so maybe she would give him a pass. When he’s prepped all his vegetables, Yukhei fries off some onions and peppers, seasons, then adds a tin of tomato sauce and a sprinkling of chopped basil. He assembles the vegetable slices on top and pops it in their tiny oven. The camera then pans to Yukhei’s laptop screen, which it sometimes does to show off the most outrageous Google searches. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>But when Mark’s mind registers this particular Google search, his eyes bulge out of their sockets and then he’s frantically pausing the video and sitting up in a jolt.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Because right there in his search bar, for all of Twitterverse to see, “is it normal to kiss ur homies on the lips? 100%”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Mark shuts then drops his phone on the couch. This shit needs at least a few minutes of processing. Mark had always known his roommate was generous with his affections. He has firsthand experience multiple times daily to attest to the fact. But to the extent of kissing a friend on the lips? They’ve never done that before, and Mark is Yukhei’s best homie. Is that how Yukhei feels about kissing friends on the lips: that it’s perfectly normal? Has Yukhei ever </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to kiss a friend on the lips?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Has Yukhei ever thought about kissing </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mark</span>
  </em>
  <span> on the lips?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Because if Mark is finally going to be completely honest with himself...he’s thought about kissing Yukhei on the lips.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When he had decided to watch Yukhei’s latest food video on Twitter, he expected to feel awed, amused, hungry for sure. But the last thing he expected was to feel called out and confused. He checks his watch: it’s 2:45 and he has 15 minutes to rush to class. He quite frankly doesn’t have the energy to sit through two hours of behavioral theory. But Yukhei may come in at any minute from now and Mark needs all the time he can stall before facing his roommate...and the discussion that he knows they’ll finally be having after all this time.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Like he had anticipated, Mark finds himself zoning out from the lecture too long and too frequently. After twenty minutes of futile attempts at paying attention, he gives it up as a lost cause. He doesn’t know exactly what he feels about Yukhei’s damn Google search; or, more accurately, he feels too many different emotions. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He was startled for all of five seconds, and then confused, but now he guesses he’s mostly bothered: bothered that he didn’t know Yukhei thought that way, when they were the best of pals and told each other everything. Or Mark had thought they told each other everything. Then he realizes that he himself has been keeping an immense secret from Yukhei, so he probably shouldn't be all that aggrieved. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>But mostly he’s bothered by how bothered he is. It was likely not a big deal to Yukhei, given that he’d shared his sentiment to the literal world, so why is it one to Mark? Is it that he’s bothered that Yukhei is possibly kissing other boys, when Mark has only imagined kissing Yukhei since that one fateful night when a dream forced him to confront his burgeoning romantic feelings for his roommate? Is it that Yukhei is apparently totally fine with smooching his homies but Mark, his supposedly ride-or-die best homie</span>
  <span>TM</span>
  <span>? Is it that, if Mark and Yukhei did kiss, his roommate would just brush it off as casual and perfectly ordinary? Yes, he thinks. It’s all of that.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He spends the whole class in his feels that he barely registers it ending, only broken out of his reverie by the sudden tumult of students chatting and getting up out of their seats. He picks up his backpack, which he hadn’t even opened, and quietly exits the room with the last of his classmates. He debates whether to stall instead of going straight home, but he thinks a couple of hours won’t suffice to help him sort his feelings anyway, and so he decides to just bite the bullet and walk back to their dorm.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He hesitates outside their door when he hears the sound of footsteps inside. It’s confirmed, Xuxi’s home. When he finally turns the key in and opens the door, he immediately locks eyes with Yukhei, who is looking up from where he’s seated on the couch. And is that nervousness he sees in Yukhei’s eyes?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Mark,” greets Yukhei, at the same time that Mark proffers a nonchalant “yo.” Or an attempt at it anyway. He locks the door, sets his bag on the counter, and proceeds to where Yukhei is leaning forward with his hands interlocked on his thighs. Yes, they are most definitely in for a serious conversation, if Yukhei’s posture is anything to go by. He takes a seat beside him, though he’s conscious not to let their bodies touch. God, they have never been this awkward in the two years they’ve known and lived with each other. He mentally curses Remy for inspiring his roommate to make goddamned ratatouille, the admittedly delicious harbinger of his present woes.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Did you want to talk to me about something?” ventures Mark, hesitantly turning to his side and peeking up at his roommate. “Yeah...uhh...did you watch the video I uploaded today? It was the ratatouille I made last week.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, of course I did. I watched it as soon as I saw.” Mark tries for an encouraging smile, but he can’t be sure, he might have looked constipated instead. It’s clear that Yukhei doesn’t know how to broach </span>
  <em>
    <span>the</span>
  </em>
  <span> topic, because he opens then closes his mouth a couple of times and his features morph through a series of expressions. Eventually he goes for a vague “so what did you think about it?” And to be honest Mark had wished he’d get straight to the point, but they’re probably equally awkward and clueless about segueing the conversation in that direction.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re really talented...homie.” There it is. Yukhei’s eyebrows rise and he looks like the innocent puppy he resembles when he’s caught unawares. He also blushes and rubs at his nape. “Oh...right...uhm..and what did you feel about that?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Yes, Mark Lee, what </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> you feel about that? “I didn’t know you felt that way...about your friends.” He’s looking expectantly at Yukhei, who is still furiously blushing and looking down at his lap. But exactly what Mark is expecting, or wishing for, Yukhei to say, he isn’t sure.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“To be honest that was just me rationalizing an urge.” He looks up then as he says it, still a bit shy, but also looking expectant, almost challenging.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“An urge...to kiss your homies?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“To kiss </span>
  <em>
    <span>a</span>
  </em>
  <span> homie.” Now there’s no trace of shyness behind Yukhei’s eyes or marring his features. Instead there’s a steadfast and daring confidence as he looks straight into his eyes; and that little butterfly they call hope starts to unfurl its wings from within Mark’s proverbial heart, waiting for confirmation to soar.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Who’s the lucky guy?” Mark tries to school his features to look unassuming, but his heart is beating wildly in his chest, bracing for Yukhei’s answer and knowing that whatever it is will irrevocably change their relationship. It feels like forever before Yukhei replies.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s you, Markie. Your roommate’s hopelessly in love with you.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And there it is: the little butterfly is feverishly beating its wings and giving way to jubilation. Because how many times has Mark imagined this moment in fancy ⏤ when Yukhei confesses that he too feels for Mark in the way that he does? And how many times has Mark imagined the scene unfolding on this very couch? Because though his heart skips a beat at the thought of more traditionally romantic, storybook confessions, he knows for a fact that in his heart of hearts he relates Yukhei with home, </span>
  <em>
    <span>their</span>
  </em>
  <span> home, and the uncomplicated comforts of domesticity and of companionship without veneer.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He laughs, an exhale, in relief that after all his distress and apprehension he finds that Yukhei feels the same. He laughs, a sigh, in disbelief that after all his doubt and second-guessing he finds that Yukhei feels the same. Yukhei feels the same.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, Yukhei ‘Xuxi’ Wong, it is with absolute pleasure that I inform you...that your roommate, too, is hopelessly, madly, crazily in love with you. And he too would like to kiss his best homie on the lips. Preferably now. And preferably many times thereafter.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And Yukhei laughs, too, with that absolutely endearing, unassuming grin that Mark unfailingly mirrors like a reflex. He laughs and takes Mark’s hands, locks them with his, and with tears of mirth still pooling at the corners of his eyes, he looks at Mark with nothing but the utmost sincerity, and then he speaks. “I would love to arrange that, Mark Lee.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And so they come together: slowly, gently, but assuredly, their faces draw closer and their eyes slip shut. Slowly, gently, their noses touch and they angle their heads, without prompting, without words, naturally aligning so that the contours of their faces slide in perfect harmony like two pieces of a puzzle. Slowly, gently, their lips meet and press, sending tingles through their bodies and sparks through their souls. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Briefly and spontaneously, Mark’s mind goes back to the ratatouille and conjures the golden image of a young Anton Ego stumbling in through the kitchen doors and discovering that his mother cooked his favorite meal. And he thinks that that’s the perfect metaphor for what he feels right now, in this kiss, and what he feels for Yukhei, what he’s always felt for Yukhei. Gratitude. Comfort. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Home</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So how would you rate your first kiss with a homie?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“100%.” //</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i have a crush on one mister newton nguyen, and one time i realized he reminds me of yukhei! alas this</p>
<p>i have legit wanted to write this au for so long, and i've gotten around to it finally</p>
<p>inspired by newt's actual vids! check him out on twitter @milktpapi if u haven't yet</p></blockquote></div></div>
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